Inside: A Magical Country Wedding In Cheshire

From meeting at work to their sunset proposal and magical Cheshire wedding at Scarlett Hall, the couple’s story is one of love, laughter, and cherished memories. Discover all the details of Levi and Jonathan‘s dream country wedding here.

The Story So Far..

Like many people we actually met at work. I used to work for Jonathan, initially we were really great friends as we both have a similar sense of humour. After a few years we both found ourselves single and things progressed from there. After around 5 years together, we were on holiday in Mauritius and Jonathan hired a private boat and proposed at sunset with Champagne. It was very romantic and the perfect setting. It was really an amazing trip.

My ring is a 1.5 carat diamond in the classic 6 prong Tiffany style setting. Months before we got engaged, Jonathan took me to try on engagement rings. I really loved this style, it felt simple and timeless rather than trendy.

The Venue

After we got engaged, we immediately started looking for venues and we came across Scarlett Hall (also known as Parr Green Hall) which felt like the perfect fit to meet all our requirements. We wanted a venue that we could have for the full weekend. We love two day weddings, as day two enables you to slow down and have a chilled day to enjoy the time with everybody. We wanted a venue in the North West, our vision was a quintessentially British springtime wedding. We are also big foodies so we wanted the ability to choose our own caterers.

When we visited we immediately knew that it was the venue for us. The night before the wedding me, my mum and nine bridesmaids all stayed at the venue and had a chef prepare a Mexican feast. We had a really chilled out evening opening gifts and preparing for the next day.

Day two of the wedding, we had our caterers back to provide a hog roast feast which went down a storm with all the hangovers. We also had an ice cream and pizza van come later in the evening, I’ve never seen so much food consumed! For entertainment we had an acoustic singer, some questionable karaoke and a great bar serving watermelon margaritas. The night finished off with a pool party for those staying at the venue.

The Fashion

The dress and shoe shopping resulted in significantly more indecision than the venue. I visited five wedding dress shops and tried on at least 50 dresses, and I actually chose the first dress I liked from the first shop. My wedding dress was the Lucia gown by Chosen by Kyha. I added a skirt for extra drama when walking down the aisle. It hugged my figure perfectly and was unanimously the favourite amongst the bridal party. I had a huge veil made by Rebecca Anne Designs embroidered with “Whenever I’m alone with you, you make me feel like I am home again”. Which are lyrics from our first dance song.

For shoes, I tried on almost every designer bridal shoe sold. Nothing seemed to work! But eventually I was between a Manolo Blahnik Hangisi pair or a Jimmy Choo champagne diamond fabric pump. I went with the Jimmy Choo as it added a little bit of sparkle while still being understated and I have never seen anybody else with them. They have actually stopped selling them already. The Jimmy Choos also came in a blue dustbag, which was my something blue.

For a suit we had Jonathan’s tux tailored by King and Allen in Knutsford. That was a little daunting as an experience but actually the suit came out great.

Jewellery

For jewellery I kept it really simple. For earrings I had four prong white gold studs from Carat. My necklace and bracelet was the matrix tennis set from Swarovski. Our wedding rings were from a great little British jeweller in Sheffield called Jessica Flynn. They offer a shaped-to-fit wedding ring design service, which is perfect if you’re seeking a wedding band to fit snuggly to your engagement ring. My ring is called the Zoey which is a platinum diamond set leaf ring. This had a personal meaning as my loved ones call me ‘Leaves’ and I went to university in Sheffield so the place has a special place in my heart. Jonathan got a platinum band which is really lovely.

The Bridal Party

We had no flower girls but I had 9 bridesmaids which was quite the challenge to find a dress. I knew I wanted a sage green colour which felt very springtime. Originally I wanted satin but most of the options looked a little cheap and it was hard to get a variation that would look good on 9 different shapes and sizes. I came across a lovely little company in Preston called Bridesmaid By JB, which was perfect. She has a huge number of styles all of which you can get in the same fabric and the dresses are made to measure, meaning they perfectly fit each bridesmaid. This service was absolutely flawless and she was very accommodating, especially to one of the bridesmaids who was pregnant and therefore needed some flexibility on confirming size.

Each of my bridesmaids received a gift bag the night before the wedding. This included a handwritten letter, a napkin for their happy tears, heart sunglasses and some personalised items including sage green pyjamas, wooden clothes hanger for their dress and a Champagne coup for the wedding morning. Groomsmen received personalised cufflinks which looked great with their tux.

The Tablescape

Flowers were a huge part of our wedding venue vision. For the ceremony we had a detached flower arch and flower meadow clusters down the aisle. We planned to repurpose these for our tablescape. For our table layout we had two long tables and a top table. The long table had the flower clusters down the centre of the tables with long white candle sticks. We also had a huge hanging floral display hanging above the tables and repurposed our flower arch behind the top table. We went for gold rimmed clear charger plates and gold cutlery. We stuck with the sage green and gold theme for our napkins and our menus and place names, which had a personalised gold wax seal tying back into our original stationary. For favours we had macarons in small boxes with sage green ribbons.

Food & Drinks

We used Foray Catering for our food, a company run by two finalists from Masterchef The Professionals and they’re incredible. For evening food we had poutine as it felt like it was meaningful to both of us. I’m northern so chips and gravy are a favourite and Jonathan lived in Canada for a while, hence the link.

Entertainment

For our entertainment we had the Distractions 6-piece band. We started with a small 4-piece of two vocalists, keys and guitar for the guest arrival and the ceremony. Our walk down the aisle song was video games by Lana Del Rey. Our post ceremony song was bitter sweet symphony by the Verve.

We then had two hours of Ibiza chill type of music for the drinks reception. Our enter the meal song was Praise You by Fat Boy Slim, this was great and got the crowd going. We had The Show Band throughout the meal and the night which was fantastic. Our first dance song was Love Song by The Cure. The night finished with a DJ set which really brought the party vibe. We finished the night with the Dizzie Rascal version of You’ve Got The Love, as Jonathan loves it. It was an incredible finishing song.

For other entertainment, we had a black and white Hollywood style photo booth. Which went down a storm, people loved it. And we had a whole take your seat and take a shot Sambuca wall. As I was infamously known as ‘The Sambuca Princess’ in my youth, so it felt very fitting!

Beauty Regime & Wellness

My makeup artist was TheMakeupLab, she was amazing. I knew as soon as I was getting married I needed to have her as she trained at Charlotte Tilbury so is great at that natural glowy look. She put me onto the ritual overnight face mask which really helped with my dry skin. She also stayed the day to top up my makeup, which I loved.

For hair, I used Hair by Serafina in Derby to do my colour and we had to totally change my balayage to suit the sleek up do that I wanted. On the day Nala And The Knot did my hair

In terms of pre wedding treatments I had a number of things. Firstly I had some botox, I had an angry frown line and when squinting I often frown. So having an outdoor ceremony I was concerned I would have huge makeup lines. I also have quite a gummy smile so had some to support that and finally had some in my arm pits as I was nervous I would sweat. Despite being nervous I trialled the six months before the wedding and was super happy with the results.

Me and my husband went on quite the teeth journey ahead of the wedding, what started as a whitening kit for me ended as two porcelain veneers and a fair bit of composite bonding. I visit Doctor Jag at The Bridge Dental Clinic in Derby – he is fantastic.

I had a little bit of a dry skin nightmare ahead of the wedding so ended up having a number of facials at KP Aesthetics which really helped.

The Honeymoon

For our honeymoon we planned quite the tour. Starting with three nights in San Francisco with lots of exploring and eating out, followed by Napa Valley for vineyards and a wine train tour, on to Yosemite National Park for some health and well being and steps, Tahiti for beautiful valleys (explored in a 4×4), Bora Bora which was heaven staying in an overwater bungalow and we finished our trip in LA, a mix of Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and Malibu. It was amazing.

Advice

Don’t agonise over the small stuff. I spent a long time choosing things like invites, stationary etc. Nobody really notices and if they do it’s for a minute or two. Everybody told me the day would go fast but they are seriously not joking. Really do take those moments to enjoy the day as it feels as though everything is in fast forward. Make sure you read your T&Cs – we had a stressful few weeks a month before the wedding due to changes on what we could do at our venue. At the time you’re excited and will sign anything, but it will cause you stress later. If you have the luxury of being able to get a wedding planner, I couldn’t recommend anything more. Charlotte took most of the stress out of the wedding for us and made it seamless.